Be carefull of those Highpoint eSata interfaces. Highpoint jury-rigged their own "external" SATA connector before the SATA II spec. was ever finalized. This looks nothing like the SATA II connector on the back of the 8300HD.

You'd be better off with an external enclosure that has a standard SATA I port made for either external or internal SATA I cables (they both use the same connector). Then use the cable outline in my original post.

Again, I did a lot of research, and there are no external enclosures currently that support SATA II directly.

Actually, more specifically, no one is making an external enclosure with a SATA II "external" connector. Those SATA II drives you pointed out have the regular old SATA I "internal" connector on them. But, you don't need to buy a SATA II drive to work with the 8300HD - any old SATA I drive should work fine (that's what I'm using).

The SATA II spec. added a special connector for "external" connections that's more robust, etc., and this is what the 8300HD has on its backside.

Also note that the enclosure I bought simply has a cutout on back that allows the power and SATA cables to plug directly into the drive.

But I've seen other enclosures that wire internally to another set of connectors on the back of the unit, but these still maintain the standard SATA I connector, meaning the same SATA I to SATA II cable could be used.

It was $79 with a $15 rebate and includes a SATA card, which I needed anyway for my second machine at home. The card has a Sillicon Image chipset, an external SATA port, and a bracket with a hole in it that's presumably for a second external SATA port (haven't checked that).

I haven't looked closely at the connectors, but assume I need to order the SATA-1 to SATA-II cable from Cruz Systems before I can find out if this works.

Yes, InvaderZim. I took a look at the user's manual for the enclosure you ordered (much higher quality look than the one I bought) and it definately has the original SATA I connector. So, the Cruz cable will work perfectly with this.

that uses IDE HDD not SATA HDD and offers both USB 2.0 and SATA interface (you will still need the SATA II to STAT 1.0 cable). IDE HDD is cheaper and the additional USB 2.0 port means even if the thing doesn't work with my 8300HD, I can still use it with any of my PCs.

Foxbat, my only concern with this is that there is some type of parallel to serial conversion happening inside this enclosure (to translate from IDE to SATA). Even if you use the fastest IDE drives available (ATA133), will this provide the full 133MB/s required by the 8300HD? Or will there be overhead associated with the translation that will limit throughput and create issues?

Fair enough, I was just referring to the specs. called out by SA for the hard drive. I would still find it hard to believe that a new SATA 150 drive would not provide faster throughput than an IDE drive.

Of course, you really won't know for sure if the potential throughput differences would cause the 8300HD to work or not until you try it.

All of the Seagate SATAs are native SATA, even the ones that does not support NCQ. Most SATA 1.0 WD and Maxtor HDDs are indead converted IDE drives. All the new generation HDDs that support NCQ will be native SATA. SATA drive does not necessary faster than IDE drive. After all the internal stuff are exactly the same. The only difference is interface and NCQ in SATA II. IDE ATA 66 is actually fast enough to support all the 7200 rpm HDDs we have today.

Originally posted by DMILANIKromkamp, you could simply fill up the internal drive (with arbitrary recordings) with the external drive disconnected, and then connect up the external SATA. From that point on, all future recordings would be placed on the external drive. -D

True, but that makes it difficult to use the box as an actual PVR. Unless you *never* use the internal drive, and always use external drives.

We need to send Rogers an email explaining that if we use SATA II
external drives to archive HD movies and then the 8300 STB PVR craps
out what security do we have that the replacement PVR will be able to
access archived drives .

We then explain that if this is not addressed then competing technology
will offer security and they will lose customers.

If enough people email there cable companies with complaints then they will feel the pressure to comply .

I suspect that this "feature" (keying the external drive to the specific box) is a requirement of the program providers (HBO, etc.) to allow the use of external drives. If they didn't have this keying it would provide a "backdoor" path to the distribution of protected program material.

You can argue "digital copy rights" all you want - BUT if incorporating this keying into the system is what it takes to enable me to expand the storage capacity of my rented 8300HD - then I am in favor of it!

that uses IDE HDD not SATA HDD and offers both USB 2.0 and SATA interface (you will still need the SATA II to STAT 1.0 cable). IDE HDD is cheaper and the additional USB 2.0 port means even if the thing doesn't work with my 8300HD, I can still use it with any of my PCs.

I just ordered this unit, I'm going to pull a 160GB HD out of one of my PC's to see if it works. If it does, great, if not, I'll be out 40 bucks.

Originally posted by DMILANIYes, InvaderZim. I took a look at the user's manual for the enclosure you ordered (much higher quality look than the one I bought) and it definately has the original SATA I connector. So, the Cruz cable will work perfectly with this.
-D

I put the Apricorn case together with the Seagate drive, installed the card and attached it to my computer. I'm getting 50mb/sec when I use Nero->Preferences->Cache to test the drive.

BTW, The Apricron Ez-Bus case is by far the nicest external drive case I've used (and I've used a lot of the cheapies). It's solid aluminum with a real smooth feel and that drive is in there *tight*. I was worried about noise since the case has a fan, but the fan is large and mounted horizontally underneath the drive (it's not a little 1" fan at the back of the case -- the whining noise from those is really annoying). The only thing I don't like is the external power supply brick which looks exactly like so many others I have, but there's not really room insice for a power supply.

So I won't cry if it doesn't work (I can use it for video editing), but I hope it does.